Date Given: 2006-06-20
Given By: Bodhinatha
Category: The Spiritual Path
Duration: 34 min, 54 secs
Description: Bodhinatha first reviews the foundation of ashtanga yoga, the yamas and niyamas, and the classical goal of ashtanga yoga, enlightenment. Then Bodhinatha details the fourth through eighth limbs of astanga yoga. Asana, posture; pranayama, mastering life force; pratyahara, withdrawal; dharana, concentration; dhyana, meditation; samadhi, the true state of yoga. Bodhinatha quotes Gurudeva and describes in depth both levels of samadhi: sivakalpa and nirvikalpa.
Audio (English):
Transcript:
Good morning everyone. We're getting ready for around a two week trip to western Canada, leaves two days, includes three cities: Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. So we have, altogether we have eleven presentations to give, which vary from ten minutes to three hours in length. One of the major ones we've been sharing, guess we started last week, in Vancouver they asked for a two hour talk. So two hour talks are hard to give, right? Easier to give an hour talk, so also wanted a broad subject to reach out to a broader community, so title I chose was: The Hindu Path to Enlightenment. Enlightenment is always an interesting concept. So this morning I wanted to share the last part. It's in seven parts; this is part seven. I'll just summarize some of the material that went before briefly.
So one of the biggest problems in thinking about enlightenment is the false concept that enlightenment comes like lightening. You know you're sitting under a tree and inner lightening comes and all of a sudden, you're enlightened. Some magical transformation that takes place in a split second. So, in which you go from zero consciousness of God to a hundred percent consciousness of God in a split second. So, that's really inaccurate in the Hindu concept, because enlightenment is like anything else in life, it's a gradual process, it's not an instantaneous process. It's like learning how to do something. Like learning how to dance for example. We don't become a good dancer in one second, in one minute, one hour even one day, right? It takes years of practice to become a good dancer. It takes years to become anything really, with consistent study and practice. So enlightenment is no different. So, the way I describe it is: going from zero consciousness of God to one hundred percent consciousness of God, hundred percent consciousness of God is enlightenment, but we work at it gradually. And over the years we become more conscious of God; in fact even over lifetimes we become more and more conscious of God. And eventually we become so conscious of God, someone can call us enlightened. But it's a gradual process and it requires lots of practice. So, the talk goes on like that and gives some suggestions as to what to practice. That's a lot of what the first part is about.
And then the second part focusses more on the practice of ashtanga or eight limbed yoga, which we introduced last week and used to be self-explanatory, but more recently, there's some competition in the terminology. So if you go down the street and you see a sign that says: "Ashtanga yoga taught here," it's a different kind of ashtanga yoga. It's a kind that's become popular more recently which is a specific technique in hatha yoga. Specific kind of hatha yoga has become called ashtanga yoga. From Jois, is the main teacher of it. And it's a form of hatha yoga which has a series of postures and it works on breathing and exercise and builds up a certain heat within the body. So the terminology for ashtanga yoga we're using is the classical terminology, which has no relationship to the hatha yoga side, just means ashtanga. Ashta means eight and and anga means limb, so it just means: the yoga of eight limbs, or eight stages, or eight progressive practices, is what ashtanga means. There's eight progressive practices in yoga.
So we were talking about the first two last time, yama and niyama. Yama are the restraints, the harnessing of the instinctive nature. And niyama are the observances, the expressing of the soul nature through basic practices such as: charity and home puja and japa; qualities like that are in the yamas and niyamas. And as we mentioned quite often, at least in North America, the yamas and niyamas are skipped and start right off with the postures, which is asana, or the third limb. So, the famous hatha yogi B.K.S. Iyengar, scolds about that. He says you know, you can't skip yamas and niyamas. And he says if you skip the yamas and niyamas, you turn hatha yoga, you turn yoga into mere acrobatics, is what he says. It just becomes a physical practice, so it's a very good quote; we gave last time. So, yamas and niyamas are a foundation. An ethical and religious foundation are very much needed for the practice of yoga.
And then the other form we clarified last time was, you know: What's the goal of yoga? So the goal of yoga as it's taught in many places today is simply to become healthier. We practice yoga to be a healthier person and by the way, it also gives us a little more mental calmness and concentration. So of course, that's not the classical goal of ashtanga yoga. The classical goal of ashtanga yoga is enlightenment, or samadhi, or experiencing our identity with God. It's the meaning of ashtanga yoga is to lead us up to samadhi, not simply being a healthier person. So somehow, there's a big difference there, between a healthier person and being an enlightened person.
So this section starts with a story. Most of my sections start with a story. Unfortunately many of you know this story, but some of you don't. So we'll read the story anyway.
So our guru's guru is Yogaswami from Jaffna Sri Lanka, northern Sri Lanka. So we call him the Paramaguru or our guru's guru. Yogaswami is his name. So when Yogaswami began living in his Columbuthurai ashram, he would spend the first three days of a week in meditation. (That means 72 hours by the way. That's a long meditation, 72 hours, if you've ever tried it.) He would rest on the fourth day; again he would spend the last three days in meditation. Even after the devotees began to arrive in great numbers, he would be wrapped in meditation at will. On Sivaratri day it was his custom to meditate through the night. A few devotees who had the good fortune to be with Swami at these times saw a light shine where Swami's body should have been. Those devotees who saw the shining light, for a few seconds, believed that this was the Divine Light that shone from his blemishless form and was his true form. Even those who could not see this shining light, were amazed at the erect still form of Swami, seated like a statue without any movement. That golden form sat as still as his umbrella in the corner. On one occasion, when Swami sat like a pillar, a crow came flying, rested on his head for a while and flew away. (So, if you're used to birds it's very hard to get a bird to rest on your body. You know, you have to be so motionless, that the bird thinks you're a tree or a bush or something. Has no sense that you're a human being.) Yogaswami made reference to this event in one of his sayings in the book, Words of Our Master, which states: "If you think of the state of Siva which is beyond all attributes, it won't come. It will come by itself. One day when I was in that state a bird came and sat on my head. Even yogis and jnanis can't understand that state." Of course, Yogaswami is speaking of the state of nirvikalpa samadhi, which we will look at in depth at the end of this section.
As we mentioned Yogaswami was a great yogi and he would sit for hours, even days, in deepest meditation. He would also stress the importance of meditation to his devotees and formulated a key teaching or mahavakyam to help them meditate. Tamil language it's "tannai ari" or know thyself. Here are some of yogaswami's sayings on knowing thyself.
"You must know the Self, by the Self. Concentration of mind is required for this."
"You lack nothing, the only thing you lack is that you do not know who you are."
"Truth is not encompassed by books and learning. You must know yourself by yourself. There is nothing else to be known."
My Gurudeva began taking his monks to Jaffna in 1969. Yogaswami of course, had passed away in 1964, so we did not have the opportunity of meeting him. However, Yogaswami's disciple Markanduswami, was living in a hut outside of Jaffna and would share Yogaswami's teachings with all who visited. This way many of our senior monks had the opportunity to visit him and listen to his explanations of Yogaswami's teachings. Markanduswami liked to stress the teaching that Yogaswami only gave us one work to do and would say: "Yogaswami didn't give us a hundred odd works to do, only one. Realize the Self yourself, or know thyself, or find out who you are. You can't find the truth in a thousand books or by listening to people talk. You must realize the Self by yourself." Some specific advice he often gave regarding meditation was the following: "Yogaswami said: 'Leave your relations downstairs: your will, your intellect, your senses. Leave the fellows and go upstairs by yourself and find out who you are. Then you can go downstairs and be with the fellows.'" (Of course that means meditation.)
So we've done the first and the second limb, yama and niyama, so we're ready for the third limb of asana. Asana -- seat, posture. In hatha yoga asana refers to any of numerous poses described, prescribed to balance and tune up the subtle energies of mind and body, for meditation, and to promote health and longevity. Each asana possesses unique benefits affecting the very inner bodies and releasing energies in different parts of the nervous system. While the physical science of hatha yoga can dramatically influence health and general well being, it is primarily a preparation for the deeper yogas and meditations. Esoterically, ha and tha, respectively, indicate the microcosmic sun (ha) and moon (tha), which symbolize the masculine current, pingala nadi, and feminine current, ida nadi, in the human body.
Example of asana is of course the lotus posture -- padmasana. It's the most well known hatha yoga posture and of course in it each foot is placed on top of the opposite calf with the foot up; and in padmasana we are sitting up with a straight back. So it may seem obvious, but, one of the most important points of meditation is: sit up straight. Can't meditate if we're slumped. So Gurudeva liked to point that out -- keeping the spine straight -- and he would often say that when we begin to meditate we have to transmute, or raise the energies of the physical body. By sitting up straight, with the spine erect, the energies of the physical body are transmuted. The spine erect, the head balanced at the top of the spine, brings one into a positive mood.
In a position such as this we cannot become worried, fretful or depressed or sleepy during our meditation. Slump the shoulders forward and short-circuit the spiritual forces that flow through the spine and out through the nerve system. With the shoulders slumped it is easy to become depressed, to have mental arguments with oneself or another, or to experience unhappiness. With the spine erect and head balanced at the top of the spine, we have positive and dynamic.
Fourth limb is pranayama, meaning mastering life force. Breath control which quiets the mind and balances the ida and pingala currents, we just talked about. Pranayama is the science of controlling prana through breathing techniques in which lengths of inhalation, retention and exhalation are controlled. Pranayama prepares the mind for deep meditation.
An example: Thoughts race through the mind substance and we are aware many many thoughts. Therefore the next step is to transmute the energies from the intellectual area of the mind, so that we move our awareness into an area of the mind which does not think but conceives and looks at the thinking area. The force of the intellectual mind is controlled and transmuted through the power of a regulated breath. And as we know, Gurudeva's beginning pranayama is simply: inhaling for nine counts, holding for one, and then exhaling for nine counts and holding for one. So that's nine, one, nine, one. (Not to be confused with 9/11.) Nine one, nine one.
Be very sure to maintain the same number of counts out as in, or that the breath is regulated to the same distance in as the same distance out. So it sounds very simple but it's actually very effective in controlling the thought process. And in fact, we're writing up an exercise on that and the exercise goes something like just you know: observe your thinking for a few minutes, then practice this exercise for a few minutes, and then observe your thinking again and if you've done it correctly, your thinking will have slowed down. Your thoughts won't be as active and of course, an active thinking process is a barrier to deeper meditation. It just standing in the way.
Pratyahara: Fifth limb -- withdrawal. The drawing in of forces. In yoga the withdrawal from external consciousness. It is the practice of withdrawing consciousness from the physical senses first, such as not hearing noise while meditating. Then progressively receding from emotions, intellect, and eventually from individual consciousness itself, in order to merge into the universal.
Example: First part of the practice is to feel your nerve system. All those thousands of miles of nerve currents throughout the body and the psychic nerve system surrounding the body. Feel energy flowing through this vast network. Once this is well established, move on to the second part which is: on the out breath visualize this energy withdrawing from the nerve system into the spine. So we visualize energy coming in from the senses and from the various parts of the body, into the spine. And if we do that successfully, we naturally drop off external awareness. Of course in coming out of meditation we have to repeat this process.
Sixth limb, dharana -- concentration. Focusing the mind on a single object or line of thought. Not allowing it to wander. Guiding of the flow of consciousness. In concentration, dharana is sustained long and deeply enough; meditation naturally follows.
So Gurudeva liked to start in a very objective way. Because if you try and concentrate within yourself, it's hard to evaluate how well you're doing. So it's easiest to start by concentrating on something outside of yourself, by concentrating on a physical object. After you're sure you're doing that well then you can internalize it. So, one of the common ones is a flower, like you put a flower in front of you and simply look at it. You don't stare at it, but you look at it. Become aware of it. Each time awareness moves to some other area of the mind, move it back to the flower. And then once you've got your mind focused on the flower, you're paying attention to the flower, you start to think about it. So you think as many thoughts about the flower as you can; describing it to yourself, asking questions about it, just keeping the mind focused and try not to let the mind go somewhere else. If the mind goes somewhere else bring it back to the flower and keep thinking about it. That's concentration. Controlling the thinking process, having it focus on one object.
Next is dhyana or meditation. Meditation describes a quiet, alert, powerfully concentrated state, wherein new knowledge and insights are awakened from within, as awareness focusses one-pointedly on an object or specific line of thought. So continuing with our flower example: when we start to get insights about the flower, something we didn't know before, that's meditation. Insights into an object, then that comes when the concentration is good.
State of meditation is careful, close scrutiny of the individual elements and energy which make up that flower. We're now scrutinizing the inner layers of the mind of how a flower grows, how the seed if formed. You're observing it so keenly that you have forgotten that you are a physical body, that you are an emotional unit, that you are breathing. You are in the area of the mind where that flower exists, and the bush that it came from, and the roots and the seed, and all phases of manifestation. You are seeing them all. Then you are meditating on the actual inner area of the mind where, in all stages of manifestation, that particular species of flower actually is within the mind.
Eighth stage is called samadhi. In English it's the word is enstasy (which is hard to pronounce). Enstasy which means standing within oneself. Which is the word that's commonly used to translate samadhi. Samadhi is the true state of yoga in which the meditator and the object of meditation are one. and has two levels in Gurudeva's teachings. First is savikalpa samadhi, which in it's highest form, is the realization of the primal substratum or pure consciousness -- satchidananda.
Gurudeva describes satchidananda in relationship to the flower. He says: "Contemplation is concentrating so deeply in the inner areas of the mind in which that flower and the species of it and the seed of it and all exist. We go deeper, deeper, deeper within, into the energy and the life within the cells of the flower, and we find that the energy and the life within the cells of the flower is the same as the energy within us, and we are in contemplation upon energy itself. We see the energy as light. We might see the light within our head, if we have a slight body consciousness. In a state of contemplation, we might not even be conscious of light itself, for you are only conscious of light if you have a slight consciousness of darkness. Otherwise, it is just your natural state, and you are in a deep reverie. In a state of contemplation, you are so intently alive, you can't move. That's why you sit so quietly.
When you are in the mind of energy, in that rarefied consciousness, you are not conscious of the Earth or any planets. You are just conscious of the substratum of energy that runs through Earth, space and planets. It's not even really energy. We are only conscious of energy when we are conscious of something that seems to be not energy. "
So I remember a story Gurudeva told me a long time ago. He was writing to some devotees in Africa. And Gurudeva had the ability, when he was related to devotees in different countries of the world, his mind would go to that country of the world and he would see things in that country of the world. Interesting ability. So in this case, he was writing to someone in Nigeria and he was explaining to me that his mind went to Nigeria and he saw himself as energy flowing through these huge African leaves. You know jungle leaves, really big. And you know I was a young monk at the time and it really impressed me. I thought: "Oh, there he is, flowing through these big leaves in Africa. That sounds very interesting."
So that kind of gives you the spirit of this kind of samadhi. It's identifying with the energy which flows through everything. And it's an interesting experience if you ever experience it, because you can't go anywhere. You can only go somewhere when you're here and you're not there, right? But if you're everywhere already, you can't go anywhere. So consequently, if you're experiencing savikalpa samadhi or contemplation, you move from here to there but you don't feel you went anywhere. Cause you can't go anywhere when you're already everywhere. So, that's how you know if you ever wonder for sure. If you go somewhere and you don't feel like, you know you're walking down the street or running down the street and you don't feel like you're going anywhere, you might be in savikalpa samadhi.
Second level of samadhi is nirvikalpa samadhi, in which all modes of consciousness are transcended and Absolute Reality, beyond time, form and space, is experienced. This brings in its aftermath a complete transformation of consciousness. Nirvikalpa samadhi is also known as Self Realization, -- supraconscious enstasy-- samadhi, or beingness without thought or cognition.
So back to our story of the flower. Gurudeva continues, he says: "This, then, leads to samadhi, the very deepest nirvikalpa samadhi, where we almost, in a sense, go within one atom of that energy and move into the primal source of all. There's really nothing that you can say about it, because you cannot cast that concept of the Self or the depth of samadhi, you cannot cast it out in words. You cannot throw it out in a concept, because there are no areas of the mind in which the Self exists. And yet, but for the Self, the mind, consciousness, would not exist."
There's a wonderful analogy that Gurudeva created about a swimming pool which helps explain this. He says: "If you were to explain Self Realization in another way, look at it in this way. Right our here we have a swimming pool. (I wonder if he was, think he would have meant this one? O.K. the temple tank. Right out here we have a temple tank.) Beneath the surface of the water, we will call that the Self, Parasiva. The surface of the water, just the surface of it, we will call that the depths of contemplation, that pure consciousness, that most super-rarefied area of the mind; the most refined area of the mind of pure consciousness. And we are going to dive through pure consciousness into the Self. We will call the physical body awareness. It's a body of light, and it's going to dive into the Self, into the depths of samadhi. But to do that, it has to break the surface, has to break pure consciousness.
So then, we make a preparation. Attention! We take all our clothes off. We put on a bathing suit and we walk around the pool. We are getting ready for this great dive. Concentration! We pull our forces together. We don't quite know what is going to happen to us. Meditation! We look over the swimming pool. We look over the whole thing. We are studying out the philosophy of just what we are going to do. We even try to measure the depth of the Self. We talk to people about it and ask, 'Have you jumped in there?' Some say, 'No, but I intend to one day,' and others will say, 'Yes.' Well, can you tell me something about it?' And they say, 'no.' Then you go into contemplation. You just stand. You are completely aware of just standing there, right on the brink of the Absolute, and you are standing -- so, so, so much conscious that you are there; you are just aware of being aware. And then you laugh, and then you jump in. As your hands and head go into the water, they disappear. The body breaks the surface, it disappears. As the legs go in, they disappear. And we are all looking at the surface of the swimming pool and don't see you there anymore. You just disappeared, the whole body.
As you come out of that samadhi, first the hands and head come up and begin to appear -- then the chest, then the entire torso. Then, as you climb out from the pool the legs reappear, and finally the feet appear again. You are just the same as you were before, but you are all clean on the inside. Awareness has a new center. The center is way down in the bottom of there, someplace that you can't even talk about. You have realized, when you come out, that you have realized the Self.
Before you went in, you knew all sorts of things about it. You could quote a thousand different things about the Self, Parasiva; you knew so much. And when you come out, you don't know anything about it at all. You know you have had a tremendous experience, you have had an inner bath. Then you go back into just enjoying the experience -- contemplation. Then you begin to meditate, coming out again on that experience. Then there is a vastness in which that awareness can no longer penetrate. It's a tremendous vastness; you just can't penetrate it anymore. You go in and in and in, and then all of a sudden you realize that you have realized the Self again. And you go in and in and in again, and then all of a sudden you realize that you have realized the Self again. And everything is different. You look at the world from the inside out. You look at people from the inside out. You look at a person, and immediately you see how he came along through life. You look at his face, and you see what his mother looks like. You look into his subconscious mind; you see what his home looked like. You see what he was like when he was ten years old, fourteen, twenty, twenty-five years old; now he is thirty. And at the same time you are seeing what he is going to look like when he is forty years old, and so forth. You see the whole sequence, all now. Then you really know, after that deep samadhi, that the mind, in all phases of manifestation, was all finished long ago. It's already complete.
Before that, you try to believe in that concept. And it's a vast concept to believe in, because at certain times, when awareness is flowing in the external areas of the mind, it certainly doesn't look that way at all. Our perspective is limited."
And I have a verse. Last thing is a verse from the Chandogya Upanishad. "The Infinite is below, above, behind, before, to the right, to the left. I am all this. This Infinite is the Self. The Self is below, above, behind, before, to the right, to the left. I am all this. One who knows, meditates upon and realizes the truth of the Self -- such a one delights in the Self, revels in the Self, rejoices in the Self. He becomes master of himself and master of all the worlds. Slaves are they who know not this truth. He who knows, meditates upon and realizes this truth of the Self finds that everything -- primal energy, ether, fire, water and all the other elements, mind, will, speech, sacred hymns and scriptures, indeed the whole universe -- issues forth from it."
Thank you for your patience, little deep. It works better if you've heard the preceding six parts. But anyway, it's a wonderful insight into ashtanga yoga from Gurudeva's point of view and as Gurudeva liked to point out: sometimes the biggest obstacle to deeper realizations is our concept that we're not ready for deeper realizations. We have a barrier there; we create a barrier. So, there's no need to create a barrier, an obstacle. You just take it away, say: "Well I'm ready." Sometimes we feel we're not pure enough, or haven't done enough discipline or, I remember when I was young I did this; that certainly disqualifies me. Or you know, whatever. We have all these concepts that create this barrier, this obstacle, that we're not ready for deeper realizations. Something has to happen first. But Gurudeva tried to encourage us to eliminate that sense you know and say: well, that's not correct, you know. When it comes to Parasiva, the Self, you're already Parasiva. You don't have to do something to be Parasiva. You just have to do something to realize that you were always Parasiva.
So that helps take away some of the sense we're not ready when we start to think about: oh I'm already that. Well, if I'm already that, don't have to become that, then certainly there's no reason not to be ready to be that, right? Cause I've always been that. So it's another way of looking at it that's very interesting and useful. Because, when we sit down and meditate we want to go in as deeply as we can. We don't want to trip over our self you know. Have self-created obstacles there. Oh, I can't go past this point, I'm not worthy. Or I can't go in, I can't experience that. Or I can't claim something I've always been. We want to just keep going. And we go in as deep as we can, that's the whole idea of ashtanga yoga is to set aside the concepts that put off going in deeply and just go in as deeply as we can.
[End of transcript]
